


We'll Meet Again (Don't Know Where, Don't Know When)

by The_Fanfic_Mormon



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Violence, Body Horror, Canon Compliant, Character Death, End of the World, Everyone is Dead, F/F, Friendship, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, I'm Bad At Tagging, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Might be some OOC, Mind Control, Misery, Possession, Sad Ending, The Author Regrets Everything, Unhappy Ending, Weird Plot Shit, a little romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-26 03:07:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20036887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Fanfic_Mormon/pseuds/The_Fanfic_Mormon
Summary: The Mind Flayer is a tad bit more sadistic, and everyone pays for it.This is the worst thing I've ever written, featuring: Children dying, badly written squeezed in romance, heavy use of italics, and an author who got legitimately depressed writing this.





	We'll Meet Again (Don't Know Where, Don't Know When)

**Author's Note:**

> This entire fic stems from the scene at the end of S3E4 where "We'll meet again" plays. That song is incredibly creepy in certain instances, and it inspired a massive spiral into writing the most miserable thing I could think of. This is much less a story I wanted to write, and more one that I HAD to write as my dark muse dragged my by my hair until I was finished. ANYWAY, this is a shit show, this is the first time I've written these characters, and there are probably a whole host of issues and plot holes, but honestly I don't care.

It isn’t often he feels emotions. Conquering other worlds gives him a thrill. He can get bored if it takes too long. That’s all he’s felt for quite some time.

He is _furious_. A single, pathetic human, able to not only hold them back but close the crack between worlds? It defies comprehension. The particles that make up his body vibrate with anger, as he strides towards the Byer’s house.

_Byers_. That damned name. Humanity is already a disgustingly inferior species, but there’s a special place for the ilk of the Byers name, as well as their degenerate allies. The house comes into view, and he raises one gigantic limb before bringing it down with all the might he can muster. The structure burst apart, shards of wood flying every which way.

He could sense the power in that girl, power that supersedes any other in that miserable world. He storms over to the building he can sense she’s in, what they called a “school.” Looming over it, he glares down, and a hate begins to build up. He raises a limb.

Then he stops. From his short time in William Byer’s body, he had been able to glean much about the child. This girl. She had friends, allies, people who loved her. Sure, she’s the only thing with enough power to stop him. But she is human, and that is sufficient. All he has to do is wait for another opportunity. Then, she will suffer.

The Mind Flayer calms himself, focuses on his hate, and begins to plot.

* * *

Billy really doesn’t know what the fuck is going on. There was a car crash…and a-a thing that grabbed his leg and-

God, he can still feel the ooze that it pumped down his throat. He’s fucking panicking, heart going about as fast as his car, and now he’s dialing 9-1-1, thinking what the fucking _fuck_ he’s going to say to the operator. He needs a hospital, or an ambulance, or something goddamn it, or he going to fucking pass out from the sheer stress of it all.

The light in the booth starts flickering like crazy, and then it plunges him into darkness. Of course it does. Then he steps outside.

The landscape has turned into…something else. The ground is crisscrossed with some black, slimy sort of vines, and the air is full of white shit floating around. There’s a looming fog that sure as fuck wasn’t there before.

Billy was never particularly religious. Neil always insisted they go to church back in California, as if listening to platitudes about kindness and treating others with respect “for they are all God’s children” made up for the bruises that adorned his arms and chest. God wasn’t exactly his friend at this point, seeing as the cunt seemed to ignore quite a bit.

All of that was forgotten as Billy walked into the mist, pleading internally for nothing to happen. Oh, he’ll be so much better if he can just get home. He’ll be a good son, a good brother, he won’t act like a dick, he will try his absolute _hardest_ to be a decent person if he can just get out of this damn place.

Suddenly, the silhouette of a crowd is visible. The thump-thump of their feet echoes across the road as they march in unison towards him.

“What do you want?” he asks, and he can’t keep the fear out of his voice. He really just needs to get out of here, but his legs won’t move in any direction but forwards.

Sweat and blood mix as they slowly drip down his face. “HEY! I said what do you want?!?” He’s desperate now, and he just wants these marching _fucks_ to do something, say something ANYTHING!

“I said, WHAT DO YOU WANT?!?” he yells, as red lightening breaks through the heavy grey clouds. A single figure from the crowd walks forward, and Billy is petrified as the shadow gets more and more clear.

It’s him. It’s _him_. An exact copy, hair, clothes, mustache… what the fuck? His heart is pounding, so loud that it overtakes the rolling thunder. His breaths are shaky and frantic, and he just can’t move.

The lightening hits a climax, wild bolts of crimson scattering through the sky, as his doppelganger walks right up to him.

“To build. I want you to build.” The copy’s mouth is moving, but the voice seems to come from everywhere, and it resonates in all the wrong ways.

“To build what?” Confusion overtakes fright for a moment.

“What you see.” Several figures step forward from the crowd, and as they come into view, Billy’s mind finally grasps at nothing when he tries to comprehend.

Max. Max is there, giving him the same empty gaze his copy is. A hurried glance tells him that her other shitbird friends are there. The five of them stand in a line, unmoving as the doppelganger gestures to them.

“Find the girl through them. _Any_ of them.”

“Wha-”

But with a clap of thunder, he’s left staring at an empty road.

* * *

“Janet, Tom, this…” and Billy trails off, taking the moment to stare at the redhead and her friend, “is my sister, Maxine.”

Her eyes are wide, a little frantic, even as he gets up, and he makes sure to have concern written all over his face.

“Oh!” Janet crows, while Billy walks right up to Max, keeping an almost comically polite tone. This little _bitch_ really picked the wrong time to interfere.

“We just wanted to make sure everything was okay.” She says, voice hesitating for just a fraction of a second. Max always was a decent liar. He locks eyes with her, inching a little closer.

“Okay?” He conjures up some confusion. “Why wouldn’t it be okay?” Almost a condescending air to the way his eyes widen a little.

“Where is she?” The girl next to her asks, solemn and clearly not buying his act. The fact that they’re asking questions like this is concerning, but no matter.

Billy turns his head slowly, face absent of any emotion, to look at the sopping wet girl, and just for a second he thinks he _must_ know her from somewhere important.

“I’m sorry, where is _who_?”

“Well, they’re a little burnt, I’m sorry-” and he allows himself to be relieved at her entrance. Perfect timing, and these two brats look more than a little confused.

“Heather!” he says, raising his voice a little and turning to her with a flourish, “This is my sister, Maxine.” He turns back to his sister’s friend, leveling an intense stare at her.

“And, I’m sorry, I did not quite catch your name.” The girl looks back at him. As thunder rumbles in the background.

“El.” No inflection, no facial expressions. There’s _something_ to this one, and he just can’t place it.

“El.” He repeats, finger gesturing her way. “Now, what is it you were saying, El?”

Suddenly it clicks. It’s _her_. The revelation is felt in Heather as well, and luckily she keeps a straight face as he blinks in shock. The girls have diverted their attention to her, so they miss his reaction.

They make up some half-assed excuse, and even though she offers them food, they’re obviously a little shaken. They suspect something, though.

As their yellow and red figures walk out into the red, Billy stares out the door’s window. Time seems to slow, and visions hit him, one after the other.

_A girl, blood dripping out of her nose, gestures towards a shrinking crack in a wall. A tendril of black particles bursts out, only to be pushed back as she raises another hand._

_She screams, loud and piercing as she begins to levitate. Blood is pouring over her mouth, her chin, everywhere, as the crack closes and closes. He’s frustrated and angry and he just wants her to _die_._

El is the girl. The one who can stop him.

He walks into the living room, gives a bashful grin, and clasps his hands together.

“You know, I’m so sorry, but I have to get home. Wouldn’t want my sister and her friend getting lost, after all.”

Tom shrugs and keeps eating. “Oh, you’re such a fantastic brother!” Janet says, and he turns to go.

“And…uh, Heather. You’ll take care of this, right?” She smiles brightly, nodding. “Of course! Do what you need to do.”

As he walks out the door, the chorus to _American Pie_ kicks in, right as Janet collapses.

* * *

Both Billy and the thing in his head (although they are getting increasingly difficult to differentiate) are anxious. As he walks through the woods, trailing a good distance behind the girls, he can feel a part of the main body detach. At least half of it.

Last time, he can feel, they thought they could use on of the infected to spy on him. Now it is the opposite, and he can feel the warped glee they both have.

…they?

A rolling thunder echoes into the night, and through the brush Billy can see the door to their house swing shut. As quiet as he can, he shuffles over to the side of the building, edging up to the window of his sister’s room. Through the blinds, he can see Max digging through her comics, a pleasant grin on her face.

There is something about that smile. It’s loaded with more emotion than he can decipher. It’s more than typical happiness about one’s friends, and Billy can almost detect the interest being taken in it

He waits. They read comics, El resting her head on Max’s shoulder. It takes an annoyingly long time for them to tire. These little brats have nothing better to do, it seems. The rain tapers off, thunder now distant.

There’s a series of thuds behind him, and a low guttural noise, and he whirls around in surprise to see _him_. Or a substantial part of him. It’s shuddering, flesh squelching with every step, an amalgamation of flesh and bone. It has one purpose. One person to infect. Because it doesn’t just want to kill El. It wants to _hurt _her in every way it can.

There is a moment of reservation, a small voice in his mind protesting what they are about to do. The thing in front of him leans forward, and that voice is snuffed out in an instant. He walks around to the front of the house, and slowly opens the door, careful not to make a sound.

Taking soft steps, he enters Max’s room. The girls are sleeping, tangled up in each other. There’s a sense of sereneness that exudes from the sight, one he doesn’t stop to appreciate. He careful moves arms and legs, extracting his sister with the utmost care. He can feel the thing outside get excited.

Suddenly he’s no longer in control of his limbs. His steps are less tactful, as the thing in his head gets impatient and forces Billy outside. Parts of his mind are screaming. Sure, he despises Max. But this? Maybe this is too far. It’s not looking as if he has a choice, however.

He stumbles outside and the thing has moved to meet him, clawed tentacle already darting around eagerly. As he sets his sister down, she begins to shift around on the wet grass.

Green eyes open suddenly. “Billy?” she asks, voice full of sleepy confusion with a hint of fear. That’s the last word he hears before the tendril shoots out, claws wrapping around her face. The appendage begins to pump.

He is forced to sit there on his knees, watching as Max struggles in silence, a heavily muffled scream breaking through the fleshy tube every once in a while. She gags and chokes and struggles as the thing instills her with _him_, and Billy can feel tears running down his cheeks.

He barely remembers drying her off, or placing her back in bed. Thankfully, he has decided to spare Billy some of the pain. It’s hard to be regretful when the think in his head is brimming with glee.

* * *

The test in the sauna goes off with no major issues, except El almost gets choked to death and blasts Billy through a brick wall. If Max took more time in the pool supplies closet than needed, no one said a word.

* * *

Eleven is alone. She was in the void, than Billy’s mind, and now…

It’s the cabin, but it’s empty. No sound comes from any of the rooms, nor outside of it. She’s already panicking. _Nothing_ like this has ever happened before.

“Mike?” she calls out, and she hates the way she whimpers as she says it. There is silence.

“Max?” Again, nothing. Her eyes scrunch up, tears brimming. Her breaths are deep, shuddering, and wet. She whirls around, trying to desperately find _anyone_.

“MAX?!?” She screams out, voice echoing through whatever mental plane she’s in. She can’t be alone because she needs someone with her alone is bad if she’s alone that’s when Papa is punishing her where is-

“They can’t hear you.” A slightly garbled, distorted voice comes from the next room. She turns to see a shadow move against the doorframe, and then-

Billy, skin marred with black spots, slowly walks out into the main room, glaring at her. “You shouldn’t have looked for me.” he takes a step forward, and all she can do is snivel.

“We could always see you, though.” A cigarette is ground into the ashtray, hissing slightly in protest. He begins to take slow, methodical steps as El fearfully inches backwards. How could he see him? How can she escape?

Something in the air shifts, and she can feel him summoning something. The Flayed, no doubt.

“You…” An accusing finger rises, “let us in.” Tears wet her eyes, and she says nothing, terror constricting any rational part of her brain.

“And now, you are going to have to let us stay.” She starts to sob, heavy breaths in place of words. Fists clenched, Billy’s stride becomes slightly longer. He speaks with an exaggerated expression, as if getting out each syllable is a show.

“Don’t you see? All this time, we’ve been planning it.” His eyebrows begin to arch up, jaw clenched. Her fear is forcing her into being a captive audience. She can barely think. What’s his plan? What’s the _point_ of this?

“We’ve been planning it…” He turns his head to the side slightly, eyes still on El, “for you.” As he says this, a deranged smile creeps onto his face.

“We _hate_ you. All this work, all this pain, all of it just to make you _suffer_.” The sheer enthusiasm in his voice makes her jolt back, and through the fright and tears she can feel her back hit a wall.

“There is someone who _loves_ you. And they are a part of us. So we could always see you.”

“No!” She cries out, sounding so helpless. Her mind is racing, dread setting in. The sheer thought of it, that someone she’s close to has been _infected_, is just too much to handle.

“And yet we can see _into_ you now. You don’t match their feelings. Every day, you make them _hurt_, because you won’t feel the same.”

Confusion mixes with panic as her palms claw at the wall behind her. El shakes her head, crying intensely. He stops moving for a second.

“No no no-"

“YES.” His head darts forward like a snake, sadistically relishing her reaction. “Every day you make _her_ hurt.”

She’s too scared to question what he means. He takes a step. “So now it is time to end _you_.”

Another step. Her blood is pounding, heartbeat sounding off in her head. “And when you are gone, we’re going to end your friends.”

“NO!” she screams, but he doesn’t stop. He’s nearly on top of her, and he crouches down to lean his head in right next to her ear. “And then, we are going to end…EVERYONE.”

“GET AWAY!” She screams, and Billy goes flying back. Suddenly the blindfold is there again, and she rips it off, tasting blood and sweat and tears all at once.

Mike is there, and he’s asking something but she can’t hear anything. Only the Mind Flayer’s accusations and threats, repeating over and over.

* * *

In the supermarket, it’s Johnathan who goes down first. Everyone has settled into a sort of lull, post-monster adrenaline wearing off, and El’s bite is less inflamed. He and Nancy are standing near the entrance, keeping watch for any signs of the Mind Flayer’s horrific form,

Suddenly Jonathan crumples, and Nancy barely has time to scream before a twitching, black-veined Max swings a bloodied can into her head.

The other kids hear the scream. They don’t hear the wet squelch of flesh, the crumpling of steel, and the crunch of two skulls being bludgeoned in.

Lucas and Mike each support El, moving as quick as they can while Will tags behind. A blur of red can be seen in one of the aisles.

“He’s here!” Will cries.

“Oh shit! Max must have gotten flayed. How the fuck did we not fig-” is all Mike is able to say before a hand reaches out from behind a shelf and grabs his arm. He is wrenched into a shelf, while El shrieks. Will yells, and he runs to where his friend was grabbed to see Max slamming his head to the floor, bloodied fists wrapped around Mike’s neck. She’s bawling, hiccuping with mixtures of pants and sobs, but her body is covered in _him_. The Mind Flayer’s essence is within every nerve, every muscle, and she will murder them all. The scrawny boy vomits, falling backwards while Lucas is cursing and El just won’t stop wailing.

Lucas doesn’t hesitate to move a limping, barely functioning Eleven. Will doesn’t get up, his body wracked with despair. “Will! NO, let’s go!” He yells over his shoulder, and then Max is upon him.

He keeps moving, ignoring a scream that suddenly cut off with a sickening crunch. El is listless, and Lucas has to drag her. It’s like she’s given up. He wants to, he really does. But humanity is at stake, and if El goes, the world does too.

With unnatural speed, Max is there, standing in the aisle in front of them.

“Lucas…” she says, and she clearly hates this. Her eyes are red with tears, and her body twitches as she walks towards them, as if she is resisting every step.

“Max. You're still in there! You don’t have to do this!” he pleads, and before he knows it Max is there, hand wrapping around his throat. El falls from his side, shrieking.

“FUCK! Fuck you, stop, I _hate_ you!” she screams, and as Lucas gets his trachea crushed, his last thought acknowledges that those words aren’t for him.

Eleven is left on the ground, watching as Max drops the boy’s body behind him. She tries to use her powers, and all that happens is that the girl spasms backwards, before continuing towards her.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Max is babbling as she walks forward. “El, kill me. Kill me. Break my legs, stop me, do SOMETHING goddamnit!” El is weak. She can’t walk, she can’t use her mind, and nearly every friend she has is dead. And one of the people she had just grown close to is now begging her to kill her. Max continues to ramble. “He hates you. He hates you so much. He’s letting me talk because it’ll hurt more, but El, PLEASE!”

Max finally catches up with Eleven, and she picks the girl up be her shoulders, slamming her onto a freezer door. She should be begging, or scared. But she just regrets now. So many missed opportunities, so many experiences that she’ll never have. Hop is somewhere safe, she hopes. If anyone can tough out the coming apocalypse, it’s him.

“I love you.” Max whispers hoarsely, tears not stopping, as she drops El, then picks her up in a bridal carry. “I love you so much, beyond anything. I love the way you sound out new words. I love your complete devotion to everyone you care about. I just- I need you to know.”

El writhes futilely a little in her grip, than stops, words hitting her. _Max_ loves her. Max _loves_ her.

“I-I’m sorry.” She chokes out, and as Max walks to the front of the store, she can feel the stomps of the Mind Flayer drawing near. “I d-didn’t know. I made you hurt.”

Max looks shocked. “No! Don’t- never apologize. I’m about to _kill_ you, El. Love makes you hurt, I-I think.”

El can barely process any of this. This wasn’t supposed to happen. None of it. She should have been born Jane Ives, a normal baby. Not trapped in a lab, not fighting monsters from other dimensions, and not watching one of her friends drag her off to die.

“I’m sorry I was mean when we met.” She says, tears beginning to dry. Max makes a stunted noise, like a laugh and a cough happening at once. “It’s fine,” Max whimpers, “I loved your punk look anyway.”

“I l-love your eyes, and your hair, and _god_ do I love y-your lips.” Max whispers, as she walks through the broken glass to the door. El is squeezed tighter in her arms, and as she gasps, she can’t tell whether it’s a hug or to prevent her from escaping.

“I love the way you g-get all flustered at a-any new thing, an- you’d blush, and it was adorable.” Max says, as she steps through the doorway. The Mind Flayer is there, and although it has no face, El can see it _leering_ at her.

Max sets her down, and stays on her knees. “I love your scathing honesty, and your fashion sense, and when I got to hold your hand!” She yells, trying to be defiant in the face of certain termination. The monster roars triumphantly, trumpeting its victory into the air.

Maybe it’s knowing she’s about to die, maybe she’s felt this way all along. She can’t tell. But in that moment, El looks at Max. Tear-stained, black-veined, blood-and-sweat covered Max. And as a clawed tentacle forces its way out of the Mind Flayer’s toothy maw, Eleven leans up and kisses Max.

The sudden pain in her chest makes her wheeze, blood splattering on the redhead’s face. She drops to the ground, coughing. Her vision is going dark, and before it goes black she sees a fiery flash of hair. She’s losing consciousness fast, and she just wishes she could have seen Hop one last time. Kali too. Max is _screaming_, yelling raw nonsense and curses at the thing that forced her to do this.

It’s the last thing El hears. 

* * *

When the military storms the mall, they find nothing. Just an empty mall. No monsters, no Russians, no psychic teenager.

Sam Owens is confused as hell. Neither Joyce nor Jim is here. When one of his men calls him over, the confusion is confounded doubly so by the bloodstains and bullet marks. They sweep the building several times over but find nothing.

In a Russian base just below his feet, there are exactly seven Americans. One young man, dying of bullet wounds. A young women and a girl, injured but alive, trapped in the same small cell. A teenage boy, being interrogated over what knowledge he seems to possess about the dimension they've been trying to study. And three corpses, two men and a women, being primed for incineration.

All in all, this is the USSR’s most successful project in a while. The portal is stable, and they've dealt with spies and nosy Americans. They’ve shipped the monster they caught back to Kamchatka, for study. That bastard alone took out twelve guards! But that’s just life down here, most reason. All risk, no sunlight, and lots of vodka.

Unseen by the scientists, technicians, and guards, the crack between worlds grows an inch.

* * *

Suzie hasn’t heard from Dustin in a very long time. She was heartbroken for a little bit, but got over it eventually. Apparently some teenage relationships are like that.

Promises that just don’t pan out.

**Author's Note:**

> I used a lot of italics, I am not good at writing romance (but I love Elmax, so even in my worst shit I found a way to slide 'em in), and frankly this shit gave me a headache when I proofread it. But I made a thing angsty. So whoopdedo. I don't expect people to read this one; call posting it reverse catharsis.


End file.
